Beyond the Gender Binary: Understanding Transgender Youth

In tonight’s first Friday Night Video we have a great talk about understanding transgender youth given by Dr. Margaret Nichols for TEDxJerseyCity.

Biography

Margaret Nichols, Ph.D. is a psychologist, sex therapist, and Executive Director of the Institute for Personal Growth, a psychotherapy organization she founded in 1983 with offices in Jersey City, Highland Park, and Freehold New Jersey. Among many other specialties, IPG has always worked with sex and gender diverse people, including the LGBT community. Dr. Nichols has been active in community mental health for many years, helping to start one of the first shelters for victims of domestic violence in the 1970’s and the Hyacinth Foundation, New Jersey’s largest HIV support and service agency, in 1985. She is a frequent speaker on LGBT issues and author of many articles and papers on LGBT sexuality. Her current primary clinical areas of interest include transgender and gender nonconforming young people. Under her leadership. IPG has worked with and advocated for hundreds of ‘TGNC’ kids as young as age 4 as well as their parents and families.

Synopsis

Not long ago children who insisted they were the ‘other’ sex were so rare that they were known only to a few clinics around the world specializing in childhood ‘Gender Identity Disorder.’ Now, they are in the news regularly, supported by their parents and winning law suits against school districts to use the bathroom of their choice. In this talk I explain the difference between transgender children and those who are gender nonconforming or gender fluid, why we’re seeing so many of them now, and the changes they are making in our culture. Finally, I’ll describe why we all should care, not only for the sake of these children – but for the sake of ALL our children. All those who care about gender equality and freedom of self-expression need to become allies and advocates for transgender kids.

Mila Madison:

This video is for all the parents who may have a child who may be questioning any variation associated with their gender. Many parents of transgender children have reached out to us. I think this really does a good job of putting it into perspective. There are so many amazing parents out there that just want to help their kids. These parents often face many of the same obstacles we do being transgender ourselves. They are truly amazing!